UAMS BioVentures startup and Innovate Arkansas client firm InterveXion Therapeutics of Little Rock has been awarded federal grants totaling $14.5 million to further develop its drug therapies that can help methamphetamine drug abusers break their addiction.

The therapies are designed to reduce or prevent the euphoric rush that drug users crave by keeping methamphetamine in the bloodstream and out of the brain, where the drug exerts its most powerful effects, according to a UAMS news release.

The larger of the two grants, $9.55 million over three years, will support research that will determine whether a methamphetamine vaccine may be safely advanced into a clinical trial with human participants. The vaccine is a promising new strategy that could stimulate a patient’s own immune system to generate long-acting, protective anti-methamphetamine antibodies.

The other grant of $5 million over three years will support production of the anti-methamphetamine monoclonal antibody that has been successfully tested in a first clinical study of healthy adults. The grant will also fund more research to show that the antibody is safe for methamphetamine users. The additional study will prepare researchers for the next clinical trial involving methamphetamine-using participants.

Again, more here. Important work going on at UAMS. Keep up the good work, yall.